A Reflection for Holy Week by Fr. Gareth Ingham
Easter Sunday is almost here and like a stepping stone into Spring and new birth, it’s probably just about at the right time.
Amid the recent heavy showers, we have had some glorious moments of warm sunshine; a wonderful natural warmth that can lift the spirits after the long winter.
But before we gather to celebrate the rainbow glories of the Resurrection, we have the final journey with Jesus to the cross. It all starts this Sunday when we remember our Lord’s remarkable entrance into Jerusalem.
We will hear that the people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Sunday’s readings tell us a story. A story begun in celebratory sunshine, but which ends not in rainbows and silver gilded clouds, but amid the darkness of a Friday afternoon in the shadow of the Cross.
We will be reminded during the reading of the Passion Gospel, that Jesus emptied himself of all self-regard and preservation, freely giving himself to the fate that awaited him.
St. Paul in his letter to the Philippians, recognises this when he says of Jesus,
‘Though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross’.
Across the two Benefices during Holy Week, there are services each day which will hopefully encourage us to participate in Christs journey. We may not be able to follow Paul’s exhortation to the letter; ‘Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus’, but we can at least in our worship, devotion, and prayer contemplate the journey that was taken.
A journey that was taken for us all.
Fr. Gareth
Priest in Charge – The Benefice of CRIFTINS with DUDLESTON and WELSH FRANKTON
and The Benefice of PETTON with COCKSHUTT, WELSHAMPTON, and LYNEAL with COLEMERE.
Feature Image: Colmar – Unterlinden_Museum – Altarpiece of the Dominicans, Childhood and Passion of Christ – Martin Schongauer (ca 1445-1491) & Atelier, ca 1480 – Oil on wood panel – Palm Sunday, Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey.jpg. PD.